Mage Tales
Mage Tales ''(メイジの物語 ''Meiji no monogatari) is the first installment in the Mage Tales series, developed by Amuza and published by Nintendo on the Wii U. The game is set in the realm of Ulisse. Brother and sister, Estell and Wulf set off on a quest to find their mother since they were seperated when they were little. However, Estell and Wulf's quest is interfered with when Tooja, the bearer of evil, attempts to open the Gate of Eternity and slay the avatars. To do this, Tooja shatters the Soul Plinth, which releases the Mavens upon the world and bring sorrows to the avatars, subsequently powering Tooja as he was created out of the sorrows of the avatars. Gameplay Mage Tales ''is a 3D action-adventure game with role-playing and puzzle elements. The player controls Estell and Wulf from a third-person perspective using a control scheme similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Estell and Wulf primarily battle with their tails and skills taught to them by Horaich, but they can also use light-bending which is also taught to them by Horaich. When battling, the player can cause Estell and Wulf to focus on an enemy through Z-targeting. Although much of the game is spent in battle, some parts encourage the player to use stealth to sneak past guards. Estell and Wulf gains strength and new abilities through the collection of items and weapons found in dungeons or in the overworld. ''Mage Tales ''also contains several optional side-quests; minor objectives that the player can choose to complete or ignore. Completing side-quests usually results in rewards, normally in the form of weapons or abilities. Dimensional Travel The game's main gameplay mechanic is the ability to travel between two dimensions once Estell and Wulf have been seperated by the dimensions. Once the Mavens have been released, in the normal domain Estell helps Wulf to lock the Mavens back into the Soul Plinth. In the other domain where the Mavens roam, Wulf finds the Mavens at the four haven towns of Ulisse, being Mistence, Folonge, Alose and Corstead. Controls Plot Prologue Every night, Estell and Wulf, two legendary mages, spend their time at the Moonrise Temple, remembering their mother who has been missing since they were very young. On a very special night, the tenth anniversary of Estell and Wulf's mother's disappearance, Estell and Wulf were dreaming to a special mural in the Moonrise Temple. It was the mural that represented their mother, Thera, and them. It depicted Thera using her powers to separate Estell and Wulf's head, as they were conjoined at birth and they now share each other's minds and thoughts. During their dreaming, they both saw a spirit, telling them of an untold area of the Moonrise Temple where their mother was sealed. After the dream, it turned out that the spirit was actually in the real world and Estell and Wulf wanted to find their mother at the untold area. It wasn't long before they reached the Untold Altar, and the spirit, revealing his name to be Fyfe, told Estell and Wulf about the Gate of Eternity and how avatars are locked behind it, including the mages mother. Estell asked how it can be opened and Fyfe replied that a mage's tail will open the gate. Wulf jumped at the chance to put his tail into the keyhole, but it didn't open. Fyfe noticed that Estell and Wulf's tails weren't shimmering gold like a mages tail should, because the two mages were only young and their tails wouldn't of thrived yet. The only known way to accelerate the process would be to use the fabled Soul Plinth. Unfortunately it's location has been long forgotten, although the ruler of the Ulisse Realm, Arina, could know the location of the plinth, due to its whereabouts being passed down by her ancestors. Estell and Wulf return home for the night, preparing to sleep for the journey to Ulsefal, the town where the Ulisse ruler's live, in the morning. They are however awakened during the night by thieves creating a ruckus in their hometown of Corstead. The two mages jump at the chance to stop the thieves and they soon thwart the thieves, but they leave a warning message that their boss is coming, which Estell and Wulf blow off their shoulder. By now it is daybreak, and the spirit from the temple arises from the ground, this time he has taken on a form of an Ulse, the common species of the Ulisse Realm. Fyfe insists on leaving Corstead now to head to Ulsefal and they do. Search For The Soul Plinth Estell, Wulf and Fyfe head to Ulsefal and on their way encounter a squad of Order Guards on patrol for a band of suspected thieves who recently have been terrorizing the Ulisse Realm. They guards give directions for the trio to Ulseful and they continue, following the guards directions. Once Estell and Wulf along with Fyfe reach Ulsefal, they immeadiately head for Lootus Citadel where Arina will be. Unforuntately they aren't permittd inside and have to find another way inside. Fyfe, being a spirit, sneaks inside Lootus Citadel and eavesdrops on the guards, learning that there is a secret cavern entrance outside the Ulsefal walls. They head outside the walls and search for the location of the secret cave, which they soon find. Unfortunately there are guards roaming the Royal Cave, meaning they have to sneak past to meet Arina and getting seen will spell certain capture. After getting through the Royal Cave, Estell and Wulf follow the spirit to Arina's Quarters of the citadel. After finding Arina, she reveals that the Soul Plinth is at the long forgotten, Lost Keep, a system of caves hidden at Grodibel. As Estell and Wulf prepare to leave, the room is broken into by a mysterious nimble figure. The figure lunges at Arina yelling "for Tooja", hoping to slay Arina but is blocked by a powerful hit by Estell. The figure remarks a warning message that their boss is coming before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. Arina warns Estell, Wulf and the spirit about Tooja, known as the bearer of evil. Tooja was created out of the sorrows of the avatars behind the Gate of Eternity and can overthrow the avatars if enough sorrow radiates from them. Because of this, Tooja is hell-bent on bringing sorrow to the avatars and knows if it destroys the Soul Plinth, releasing the souls of the Maven's, that Tooja along with the Mavens could overthrow the Avatars. Heading to Lost Keep, Estell, Wulf and Fyfe search amongst the marshy terrain for the keep. Fortunately, Wulf stumbles upon a switch which drains the marsh and reveals the Lost Keep at the bottom of the marsh. Inside the Lost Keep are numerous creatures that are decaying from age. At the end of the keep is a large, mysterious chamber with light flowing in from unknown places, and in the middle of the chamber is the mystical Soul Plinth. Unfortunately, Tooja who has been following the three through the dungeon, appears from a portal infront of Estell, Wulf and Fyfe, hoping to shatter the Soul Plinth. Due to the youth of Estell and Wulf, the timeless Tooja defeats the heroes and shatters the Soul Plinth, releasing the harrowing screams of the souls that fill the room and disappear into the high roof, not to been seen. The Four Mavens Estell awakes in the oversized chamber by herself with Wulf no where to be seen, yet she hears him in her thoughts. The two should be looking at each other based on their descriptions of where they stand, yet they can't see each other. Fyfe explains that the Mavens spirits remain in the another dimension known as the Other Domain and that their power has sent Wulf to the Other Domain with them. Estell and Wulf talk to each other through their connected minds, planning to capture the Mavens and the Shrine of Souls, which covers the wall behind the Soul Plinth, reveals the locations of the four Mavens: Mistence, Folonge, Alose and Corstead, the four haven towns of Ulisse. Knowing that Estell and Wulf are capturing the Mavens, he tells them that they'll need a Soul Chamber to hold the Mavens souls. In the Other Domain, the Shrine of Souls reacts to the Mavens being released, and reveals the Soul Chamber which will hold the soul's of the Mavens once they are defeated. First heading to Mistence, they find the town in a fit of pity. Estell learns that, since the Mavens were released, every hour one person disappears up to the Surnud Dungeon, never to be seen again. Estell and Wulf make their way up to Surnud Dungeon and find the dungeon littered with bones everywhere. Making their way through the temple, at the end of it Wulf encounters Morvar and defeats Morvar, capturing him in the Soul Chamber. After Mistence, Estell and Wulf head to Folonge, known as the shadow town by the people of Ulisse. It is a very creepy place with odd happenings going on. People are randomly dropping to the floor out of pain. Under close inspection with the Eyelens, Estell finds that the maven, Kurita, is breaking through domains to quickly harm people without them seeing. Once Estell manages to catch Kurita as she jumps through domains, Kurita is enraged and instead pulls people into the Other Domain and locks them up within the Blood Falls Caves. Estell and Wulf head into Blood Falls Caves and rescue the trapped people who immediately are transported back into the Normal Domain. Heading back to Folonge, Kurita appears at Blood Falls and, fed up with Estell and Wulf, attempt to kill them. However Kurita's plan backfires after Wulf defeats Kurita in the Other Domain and captures him in the Soul Chamber. Next, Estell and Wulf head to Alose to stop Orjus. The barren town is almost completely empty except for a few citizens who are talking about getting back to work. Only one person, Tarinn who is a young child is speaking normal and she tells Estell about how she thinks everyone has been brainwashed into building a large temple which they're calling the Mavens Shrine. Remembering one of the Mavens being Orjus, Estelle and Wulf decide to head up to Mavens Shrine. Inside the half-constructed pyramid, brainwashed Zirrazs attack Estell and Wulf until they find Orjus and defeat him, breaking the curse on the citizens of Alose and returning them to the ordinary life's instead of being slaves. After leaving Alose, Estell and Wulf lastly head to Corstead, their hometown. At Corstead, the final Maven, Pettus is no where to be seen, however they suspect one the new citizens, also named Pettus, who has ended up with nearly everyone's money and claims to be a god. Further investigating by Estell reveals that the citizen Pettus is also the Maven Pettus. Estell follows Pettus who enters the Moonrise Temple and reveals a secret hole and jumps down it, with Estell and Wulf quickly following. At the bottom of the hole is the Core Temple, a temple built so long ago that it is the closest structure to the core of the world. Going through the Core Temple, at the end Estell and Wulf encounter Pettus who is in his Maven form. Wulf defeats Pettus and seals him in the Soul Chamber and they celebrate now that they've caught every Maven. Avatar With the Maven's souls in tow, Estell and Wulf head back to Lost Keep to return their souls into the Soul Plinth and return Wulf to the real world. After completing this, Estell is finally reunited with Wulf after their long time apart from each other. After their reunion, Estell decides to let Wulf put his tail into the Soul Plinth and let his tail bloom. After all, he defeated the Mavens single-handedly. Wulf's tail lights up and finally blooms with the power of the Soul Plinth. Immeadiately heading to Moonrise Temple, Estell and Wulf find that Tooja has an army ravaging through Moonrise Temple trying to get to the Untold Altar and past the Gate of Eternity. Once Estell and Wulf make it there, Wulf uses his tail to open the Gate of Eternity and enter to find the Avatar Altar a place where the Avatars all gather. Estell and Wulf are shocked to see their mother, Thera for the first time since their youth and learn that she is the Avatar of Land. Even more shocking, Tooja breaks into the Avatar Altar and kills Thera, sending the landmass of Ulisse into an unstable condition. With the power vested in Wulf's tail, and Fyfe's knowledge, the manage to lock away Tooja in the Gate of Eternity in the Other Domain where no life knows about the Gate of Eternity. With Tooja now locked away for what should be eternity, Estell and Wulf mourn the loss of their mother. It isn't long before they realize that their mother's powers are being sent into Estell and Wulf, making the two of them the Avatars of Land, and with the land now safe, it seems like everything will be okay. At least for now... Game Information Setting With this being the first game in the franchise, it's the first time Ulisse is portrayed and it has many different sections to the world, such as Grodibel Prairie, Uslefal, Corstead among others. As Estell and Wulf make their way through these locations, they will typically find a dungeon-like area that they'll have to traverse through and eventually get a reward at the end that will help them progress through the story. Locations *Region of Eluga **Corstead ***Moonrise Temple ***Core Temple (Fire Temple) **Ulsefal ***Lootus Citadel *Region of Jerjek **Mistence ***Surnud Dungeon (Air Temple) **Folonge ***Blood Falls ***Blood Falls Caves (Water Temple) *Region of Puhtus **Alose ***Mavens Shrine (Earth Temple) **Grodibel ***Lost Keep Characters Graphics and Audio ''Mage Tales ''features a art-style reminiscent to Õkami, featuring a hand-painted look. However, the game also has a more realistic look to it then Õkami, with an addition of more realism then what appears in Õkami. The game features an original soundtrack, including three different overworld themes, one for each region of Ulisse, as well as music for each dungeon as well as each town. In total, their are 17 different songs. Track listing *Main Theme *Moonrise Temple *Region of Eluga *Region of Jerjek *Region of Puhtus *Ulsefal *Lootus Citadel *Grodibel *Lost Keep *Mistence *Surnud Dungeon *Folonge *Blood Falls Caves *Alose *Mavens Shrine *Core Temple *Finale Trivia *Estell and Wulf were adopted during the Fantendo Character Adoptfest 2014. This soon resulted in the creation of the Mage Tales series. *Estell and Wulf were originally going to be enemies, Heamage and Fremage in Clicky, until they were changed into the main characters of ''Mage Tales. *The four mavens represent the four sins that cry to heaven. **Morvar represents the blood of Abel, being homicide. **Kurita represents the sin of the Sodomites, being abuse. **Orjus reprsents the cry of the foreigner, the widow and the orphan, being slavery. **Pettus represents the injustice to the wage earner, being fraud. *The four temples that the Mavens are fought in represent the classical four elements. Category:Action Adventure Games Category:Action Games Category:Adventure Games Category:Original Games Category:Original Series Category:Fan Games Category:Puzzle Games